The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has urged European nations to ramp up search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea following the region’s first major maritime tragedy this year in which dozens of people perished, apparently from hypothermia. (more…)

Malta, a key entry point into Europe, needs to step up its preparation for migrants and asylum-seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea and arriving at its external borders, UN human rights expert François Crépeau warned. He also urged European countries to support Malta’s efforts and ‘shoulder their share of responsibilities’. (more…)

The rise of migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the last few months has resulted in a global crisis that calls for a global humanitarian response. François Crépeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said: “This requires a new and concerted strategic approach by European states and the international community”. (more…)

On 4 November 2014, the ECtHR decided in the case Tarakhel v. Switzerland that Switzerland would be in violation of Article 3 ECHR if it would send back the applicants, a family from Afghanistan with six children, to Italy without obtaining individual guarantees from the Italian authorities that they can be together as a family in Italy and that the facilities and conditions the family would be in would be adapted to the age of the children. (more…)